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Yes I agree it's an emotive issue, but it is intentionally being kept that way.
Control is an example, it sounds good, it makes people feel good, but there already is a lot of control and rules. It has become to mean a dogwhistle/media topic, rather than working out what people actually want. The EU allows control already, no work in 3 months? Out you go. But that means you need to have a basic admin system...which the UK does not have.
See the whole Brexit debate, EU immigrants got heaped in with refugee streams. Totally not the same thing, right? So the whole discussion has become fucked up and in the end, the control people would like is not delivered either, because nobody is sure why people want to reduce legal documented immigration. (and there will be lots of reasons) so we are not getting anywhere.
And yes people complained Blair should have implemented the reductions that the EU allowed. I still don't understand how much of that is fact and how much of that is hysteria. And yes the anti immigration narrative started late Blair, Rudd and May really went with it, but previous Labour has indeed played a role.
I am of course quite irritated as an EU immigrant, but even if you want to fairly resolve it, you need to think about what you want, invest in the local people so skill shortages are rarer, have some admin so you can enforce some rules, and have a chat. But I will never be seen as a stakeholder by the UK government in the current climate.
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JWestland
Just to lay out my bias upfront - I'm pro- immigration.
I agree the 100k target seems odd and arbitrary. But we've got to a point where it is an emotive issue. Having controls is something that resonates with people and has done for a while, dare I say it partly from the Blair years original management of the new European countries, and subsequent resource management.
Moreover this is an ongoing, cross party issue (just chat to anyone about asylum cases under Jacqui Smith's tenure).